Friday, 20 December 2013

Dark Fiction - Ogham's Windy Ring

Ogham's Windy Ring

By Casey Douglass

as part of #FridayFlash

Ogham shuddered as he
forced the skeleton of a smile onto his face. ‘Three weeks!’

Dimitri made a noise
like a bashful firework soaring into the sky. ‘So what’s the
plan?’

The two boys hunkered
lower into the flower bed as a gaggle of giggling girls clipped past,
their squeaky shoes and, as was the current fashion, over-length
scarves sweeping their way across the quadrangle.

‘Billy Craver’s got
it in his room!’ Ogham whispered, his hands gripping his sides.

They shimmied along on
their stomachs, the feral undergrowth taking nips and bites out of
their clothes and skin, the mulch that it grew from not even worth
contemplating unless you found a small bone here and there.

They neared the window
to Billy Craver’s dormitory, eyeing the plaque nearby that
designated it as the “Lesser Gods Domicile”.

Dimitri hissed. ‘Don’t
know why they let them in!’

‘I don’t care! I’ll
think about it...later!’ Ogham wheezed as he wiped sweat from his
brow.

‘We wouldn’t have
had all this happen then!’ Dimitri said, his fist punching into his
other palm to emphasize every word. ‘I’m surprised your Dad
hasn’t got involved!’

‘He won’t...he’s
always doing his...hammering. Get moving!’

Dimitri looked at
Ogham, the faintest impression of a scowl crossing his features
before vanishing just as swiftly. ‘Come on then,’ he smiled.

Ogham neared the open
window and looked inside. Long rows of beds criss-crossed the room in
the most haphazard manner. Ogham’s brain was unable to make out any
pattern or reason to the jumbled mess. He gasped as he felt a shove
lift him up from the ground and shoot him into the room. He fell
heavily onto a nearby bed and bounced to the floor as Dimitri climbed
through window frame, a big smirk on his face.

‘Just trying to move
things along!’ he laughed.

‘Thank...you very
much...I almost lost...control you tit!’

Dimitri just laughed as
he began lifting beds one-handed, flicking them up into the air one
after the other, inspecting the detritus under each before letting
them clatter down to the floor again.

‘Shhh!’ Ogham
hissed.

‘Too late for Shhh!’
Billy’s voice oozed into their ears.

They both turned and
glared at the little waify fellow standing in the half open doorway.
His rattish features contorted into a happy grin as his mind
obviously revelled in the amount of trouble they were about to get
into.

Ogham groaned and fell
face forward onto the floor, the most disturbing rumbling coming from
down below.

Dimitri yelled and
through himself at Billy, one large fist already splitting the air
between them. He would have killed him too, if he had actually
connected. It was just at this moment that Ogham blew. It started
with the smallest hiss of air, but in moments had transformed into
the most undulating vibrating mass of fast moving particles that had
been seen in the universe since that other big noisy thing happened.
A ripple bellowed out from Ogham’s twitching body, the shock-wave
diverting Dimitri through a wall, and then another and another, until
he ended up in a large closet seven rooms down. Billy’s sneer was
likewise blown away, his eyes widening as his own foot managed to
kick him in the face as he lifted and twisted through the air.
Earthquakes might dream of the rumbling havoc that pushed beds
through walls, stripped the patina from the door handles and hit the
windows with such force that the glass reverted back to sand. And
then it all stopped.

The sound of this and
that falling to the floor was the only thing to spoil the silence for
a good few moments, but not long after, a loud contented sigh cut
through the barren sound-scape. Ogham sat up and rubbed his palms
over his ears making them bend in ways they didn’t like. He didn’t
know what else to do to stop the ringing.

Dimitri stumbled in,
his head and shoulders covered in cobwebs and their now mobile-home
living spiders. ‘I’m guessing the problem is solved?’

Ogham grinned as his
cheeks reddened. ‘Yes it seems so.’

Dimitri walked over and
patted him on the back. ‘Glad to hear it! I thought you were done
for!’

‘Apparently not. I
don’t know why not, but here I am!’

‘So what was the ring
for?’

‘Prevention I guess.
Dad gave it to me before I came here, said his Dad gave it to him.’

‘So we still have to
find it?’

Ogham was staring at
the ceiling, his eyes crossing slightly.

‘Og?’ Dimitri
flicked Ogham’s nose.

Ogham snorted and
looked at Dimitri. ‘What? Oh sorry. It’s just...nice. I haven’t
been sleeping and it’s just all...the world’s such a nice...’

‘Dimitri Jarilo and
Ogham Magni!’ A loud voice yelled in the hallway.

‘Oh no, it’s Old
Snaver!’ Dimitri blanched. ‘We’re for it now!’

Ogham nodded as the
blissed out look was replaced with glumness.

‘Tell him about the
ring Og! It’s the only way we might get out of this.’

‘Okay Dimitri, I
will,’ Ogham sighed.

They both struggled to
their feet and began to walk towards the door, the now glowering face
of Snaver shooting lances of ice through their veins.

Dimitri whispered:
‘Og?’

‘What?’

‘Aren’t you
forgetting something?’

‘What?’

‘Pardon me! I know
you’re a Wind God but that was something else!’

Both felt giggles begin
to climb their throats but in what could only be described as the
most startling feat of repression ever seen, they managed to stifle
and smother them so that all that survived was the merest rush of
air over their lips. Many young giggles are killed this way at birth,
never having the chance to mature into a chuckle or even, gods
permitting, a full belly laugh.

Snaver glared at the
two boys and beckoned for them to follow as he disappeared from view.
Now for the real storm.